Intel's "Extreme Edition" CPUs have always represented the company's top consumer offerings. Typically priced in the $1,000 range, they have unlocked multipliers, lots of cache, and lots of cores. But until now, Intel's top Extreme Edition offering, the Core i7-990X CPU, was based on the older Gulftown architecture, and the performance gap between this CPU and the newer Sandy Bridge architecture Core i7-2600K and 2700K is pretty damn narrow, especially considering that the latter costs less than a third the price of the former. But now Intel's made a Sandy Bridge Extreme Edition, with six physical cores and a staggering 15 megabytes of cache. Benchmark Reviews takes the new Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition CPU around the benchmark course, testing it against the best CPUs Intel and AMD have to offer.

The days when AMD processors ruled the performance roost are long gone, and most enthusiasts have forgotten they ever existed. But less than a decade ago, the Athlon X2 dual-core processor thoroughly spanked Intel's first crude dual-core efforts, which were simply two separate processor dies on one chip, communicating through the front-side bus, as opposed to AMD's much more advanced true dual-core CPUs. But AMD's been playing catch-up since then, and has been forced to compete on price rather than performance in desktop processors. Now Benchmark Reviews tests the high end of the new Bulldozer desktop CPU line, the multiplier-unlocked 8-core FX-8150 CPU.

When AMD merged with ATI in 2006, they immediately began working on combining discrete level graphics onto the die with an x86 CPU, thus forming an Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). In 2009, AMD expanded on that effort by launching VISION with the intent of shaping the performance of a PC to fit the needs of the user. Five years after the merger, AMD's design has come to fruition in desktop form. In this article, Benchmark Reviews is taking a look at the AMD A-Series A8-3850 APU.

As is common with AMD CPUs, the next in the Phenom-II X4 Black Edition series is being released; the Phenom-II X4-980BE HDZ980FBK4DGM. The X4-980BE will take over as AMDs flagship quad-core processor and guess what, it is 100MHz faster than the current quad-core king at 3.7GHz. Without surprise the Phenom-II X4-980BE will be released at the same price the X4-975BE was released in January 2011 with an MSRP of $195. And because we are just that reliable, Benchmark Reviews is here to give you the run down on the Phenom-II X4-980BE to show you how it stacks up against its younger brothers and the similarly priced (though slightly more expensive) Core i5-2500K.

To start off the new year right, AMD is filling in some more of their Phenom-II lineup. Two AMD CPUs set for release in early January 2011 are the Phenom-II X4-840 and the Phenom-II X4-975BE. The Phenom-II X4-975BE HDZ975FBGMBOX will become AMDs newest flagship quad-core processor. The Thuban based 6-core processors have taken AMD's top spot away from the Phenom-II X4 Deneb based series, but the quad-cores still pack a lot of performance and come at a price that is much less expensive than the Intel alternative. The Phenom-II X4-975BE comes set for release at an MSRP of $195 and at a screaming 3.6Ghz clock speed. In this article, Benchmark Reviews is putting the Phenom-II X4-975BE through its paces. It's really going to have to perform well to compete with the new Sandy Bridge platform coming out at the same time.

The New Year is starting off well for the computer hardware industry. Intel is releasing the long-awaited Sandy Bridge platform and AMD is filling in more of the Phenom-II and Athlon-II series. The two AMD CPUs set for release in early January 2011 are the Phenom-II X4-840 and the Phenom-II X4-975BE. The Phenom-II X4-840 HDX840WFGMBOX is the latest budget quad-core processor released by AMD. Set for release at an MSRP of only $102, the Phenom-II X4-840 could be a very affordable quad-core processor that brings a high level of performance to your computer without breaking the bank. In this article, Benchmark Reviews will help you decide if you want to spend some of your holiday cash on the new Phenom-II X4-840 CPU.

Intel's processor development follows a regular "tick-tock" cycle. The "tick" is the refinement of an existing architecture; the "tock" is a new architecture. Proceeding at a roughly yearly pace, the "tick-tock" model brought us the 45nm Nehalem architecture processors (the original Core-i3, -i5, and -i7 CPUs) as a "tock", and the subsequent 32nm Westmere processors as the "tick" part of the cycle. Now, Intel introduces their new Sandy Bridge architecture as the latest "tock", and Benchmark Reviews checks out the new Sandy Bridge-based Core i7-2600K. This unlocked, 3.4GHz, Hyper-Threading, quad-core CPU is the top of the Sandy Bridge line, and we'll see how it performs against the best AMD processors and Intel's own as well.

One of the processors in Intel's Sandy Bridge line-up that is being released in early January 2011 is the Intel Core i5-2500K. Intel is calling Sandy Bridge the 2nd Generation of Intel Core Processors. That also happens to be the significance of the 2 in the name of the Core i5-2500K. Sandy Bridge has promised to bring a lot of new ideas and technologies to the computer hardware industry, including improved media and gaming performance. The Intel Core i5-2500K is a quad-core, non-hyper-threaded, 3.3GHz processor equipped with the latest version of Intel's Turbo Boost. Set to be priced at $205 dollars, the Intel Core i5-2500K competes directly with the top end AMD Phenom-II X4 processors in price. In this article, Benchmark Reviews is bringing you the scoop on the Intel Core i5-2500K, including its performance against AMD's newest flagship quad-core, the Phenom-II X4-975BE.

While enthusiasts await AMD's next-generation "Bulldozer"-based desktop CPUs, AMD continues to expand their current desktop CPU line, introducing the Phenom II X6-1100T processor. The 6-core Phenom-II X6-1100T takes over the top spot in AMD's CPU line from the 1090T, and does it at a suggested retail price of only $299. The clock speed improvements over the 1090T are minimal: both the standard and Turbo Core speeds increase only 100MHz, to 3.3GHz and 3.7GHz, respectively. Benchmark Reviews tests the new 1100T against a collection of Intel and AMD processors in gaming and computing performance.